A/N: See the next chapter for the afterword.

Epilogue: The Homefront

If we do not live another day,
Say this over our pyre:
They died like Spectres
With their faces to the fire.

-The Unwritten Hymn of the Citadel Special Tactics and Reconnaissance Division

For Miranda Lawson the past several weeks had been hell. First Shepard, Liara, and the asari Councillor had disappeared. The very same night both Nemesis and Sira had unilaterally decided to slip their moorings and leave. Miranda could have cared less whether or not Nemesis and its asari thrall had decided to slip away in the night. She would simply have said that deals with Reapers were always guaranteed to end badly or that may well have been what Persephone thought. What had really gotten to her was the fact that Oriana had gone with them. Without so much as a word her sister had disappeared.

While she had been attempting to wrap her own mind around the suddenness of the disappearances she had been called before what was left of the Council to answer their questions. They were questions to which only Shepard knew the answers and which Miranda would have dearly liked to ask her. In the end it had been three wasted days of confinement and interrogation before the Council had decided that she and the crew didn't actually know anymore than the Council did. As it turned out the Geth had intervened on their behalf by saying that any forced confinement of Shepard's crew would invalidate their recent treaty and may lead to open conflict. For machines they were prone to being melodramatic. By the time Miranda had been released the Geth were long gone leaving only Legion behind to explain what had happened and he wasn't much help.

It had been with a hint of desperation that Miranda had pulled the crew together and taken the Normandy out to search for her sister, Shepard and the rogue Reaper. The search had proven to be a pointless and desperate matter. EDI had known nothing about Sira's plans apart from the fact that Sira had told her to look after the crew. There had been no trail left to follow by the two dreadnaughts. The occasional sighting reports that Miranda received were always out of date and sometimes even conflicting.

The final lead had taken them to Omega where they heard that Councillor Tevos had escaped her captors and returned to the Citadel. No mention had been made of Shepard or Oriana. Miranda's few remaining contacts reported having seen the Voice of Memory stop over at the station for a few hours. The ship had been, as they put it, looking somewhat the worse for wear though just as lethal as the first time it had passed by Omega. No one had seen or even heard of Shepard being on the station. Even Aria had been at a loss when Miranda had asked her about the incident.

So it was with a heavy tread that Miranda made her way back to the Normandy and back to her quarters. She had entered the door and started to peel her uniform off when she realized that there was something wrong. Someone else was in the cabin with her. Miranda instantly had her pistol in her hand sweeping the cabin. The barrel of the gun came to a halt when confronted with the room's other occupant. The asari was casually sipping a glass of alcohol that she had purloined from the bottle on Miranda's desk. She looked completely nonplussed by the gun pointed at her.

"You know pointing guns at Spectres is generally a crime." Senni remarked casually.

"Might I have your name before I have you thrown off my ship?" Miranda ordered frostily.

"Funny, I thought the Normandy was Shepard's ship." Senni replied calmly.

"And what do you know about Shepard?" Miranda interrogated.

"A few things." Senni concluded dismissively as she stood to leave.

"You can sit right back down and start telling me about them." Miranda barked as she waved the pistol menacingly.

"Can't seem to make up your mind." Senni sighed as she sat back down. "First you want me to leave now you want me to stay."

"Tell me about Shepard then you can leave." Miranda ordered as she settled down opposite Senni, the pistol still pointed firmly in the direction of the asari.

"We haven't been formally introduced but I know who you are. Miranda Lawson – former agent of Cerberus now executive officer to Shepard."

"Well now you have the advantage." Miranda joked dryly.

"Hardly." Senni laughed. "I'm Spectre Senni Vensa best known, to you at least, for shooting your CO in the leg back on the Citadel."

"Well that helps."

"Ahh but what you'll find really interesting is what I've been doing more recently." Senni replied with a twinkle in her eye. "Dear Emma was kind enough to invite along on her mission to destroy the Collectors. Before that I was a guest in her brig. Those certainly were good times."

"So how did you get here?" Miranda questioned sceptically.

"She left me here to pass on a message to you." Senni replied simply. "She said you would make your way here."

"What about my sister?" Miranda asked her voice steadier than she actually felt.

"I'm sorry? Your sister?" Senni responded, genuinely confused.

"She would have been a young woman in her twenties with dark hair. What happened to her?"

"I remember her." Senni said, her countenance brightening with recognition. "She was there when Shepard first found me on Illium. I didn't have much to do with her though. She wasn't with us when we attacked the Collectors' base."

"So you don't know what happened to her?" Miranda blurted out in shock. To have come so close and not to know was unbearable for her.

"I'm sorry I couldn't be more help." Senni answered a sense of genuine apology in her voice. "Shepard gave me an OSD for you. Well she gave me an OSD for each of the crew but she seemed pretty emphatic about you getting this one in particular. You should watch it."

Senni stood and handed Miranda the OSD she had been playing with throughout their conversation. As she headed for the door she turned back to Miranda seemed about to say something but decided against it. Senni left just as silently as she had arrived leaving Miranda alone looking at the OSD.

Eventually Miranda rose to her feet and went to the computer terminal at her desk. With a decisive movement she plugged the OSD in and dimmed the lights. After a brief moment of gloom a life sized hologram of Shepard wavered into being in the middle of the room.

Shepard looked as though she had aged since Miranda had last seen her. Her face was weary and scarred to the point that some of her cybernetics were visible. The image of Shepard seemed to steel herself before beginning to talk.

"By the time you get this message I will be gone. The reasons why are irrelevant suffice to say that I made a mistake and now I have to pay the price." Shepard seemed to pause before continuing. "Oriana is safe which is what I'm sure you really wanted to know. I wish I could tell you more but what Oriana is doing now requires secrecy. If she feels that it is safe and necessary she will fill you in on what has happened. If not then try not to worry about her. I know this is a cold comfort but it is all that I can offer you."

Shepard sighed before continuing.

"You must be pretty angry with me right now. I wish I could have been there to answer you person and I wish I could have given you answers. Unfortunately all the answers that I could give you would only lead to more questions. Our hope is that we can stop the Reapers in Dark Space. This journey that I've undertaken is the first step towards that. I don't know what I'm going to face which means there's a good chance I won't succeed or won't be making it back. That leaves me with one request to make of you. I need you to finish what I started. You have to fight the most difficult battle of all: the home front. I need you to make sure that people don't forget about the threat. I need you to make sure that alliances are in place to defend the people of this galaxy in case I fail.

You might be saying to yourself that you aren't up to this and that you aren't the hero or the great leader. The truth is that you are just as much qualified for the job as I was. Do you know what the qualification was?" Shepard asked rhetorically with a whimsical smile. "Being in the wrong place at the right time. The truth is that you are a capable woman Miranda. You have proven to be a true friend to me. I am grateful to have known you."

Shepard paused again and shook her head.

"So there it is. The fate of the galaxy I leave in your hands. I give you this unenviable responsibility with you and a promise. When the time comes, when we face our one last battle to hold back the night I promise that I will be there with you no matter what. Promise me that you'll be there too."

With those final words Shepard's hologram gradually dissipated into a thousand motes of light leaving Miranda alone with her duty. In the privacy of her quarters Miranda allowed herself the weakness of tears. Her mind alternated between exhaustion and rage at what Shepard had said. In the end all that was left was a sense of loss. Shepard was gone and Miranda was left with her duty. A duty she had never asked for and never wanted. It was a duty that few would help her with and fewer still would be grateful for. Despite it all it was the most necessary duty of them all.

In the darkness of her quarters Miranda whispered to herself "When the time comes I'll be there at your side Emma. I swear it."

The End

For Now ...